Lawsuit against online hotel brokers dismissed
October 01, 2008 | Online Travel
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit in which Louisville and Lexington officials tried to collect taxes from hundreds of online hotel brokers such as Hotels.com.
U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell on Tuesday said the city and state hotel tax laws are outdated and don’t cover online hotel brokers. The cities and state have amended their hotel taxes several times in recent years, but didn’t address online hotel brokers, Russell said.
If the cities want to collect the taxes, they are free to amend their ordinances, Russell said.
He wrote that the online brokers “were truly creatures of the future at the time the statute and ordinance originally were enacted,” and added, “The Court will not now step in to do what the state and local legislative bodies—both of whom can be expected to be fully aware of their legislative forebears—either failed or chose not to do.”
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